What to Do When Your Household Runs Out of Water

First, work out what has actually failed

Before ordering anything, spend two minutes establishing which problem you have. They look identical at the tap and need different responses.

• Municipal supply interrupted. Neighbours are affected too. Your storage may still hold water.
• Storage tank empty. Supply has been off long enough to drain it, or something has been drawing it down.
• Pump failure. The tank has water but nothing is being delivered to the taps. Check whether the pump runs at all.
• Borehole yield dropped. The pump runs but the tank is not recovering overnight.
• A leak. A running cistern or a burst on your side can empty a tank remarkably fast.

Only the second and fifth situations are solved by a tanker arriving. A pump failure needs an electrician or pump technician, and a leak needs finding before you pay to fill a tank that will empty again.

Protect the equipment before anything else

• Switch off electric geysers. A geyser element that fires with no water in the cylinder will burn out, and that is a far more expensive problem than the water.
• Switch off any pressure pump. Running a pump dry damages the seals.
• Close taps that were left open when supply failed, so nothing is lost when it returns.
• Turn off the washing machine and dishwasher mid-cycle rather than letting them fill.

Secure what you have

If there is any water left anywhere — a partly full tank, a geyser cylinder, a pool — treat it as a resource to be allocated rather than something to use up.

• Fill every container, bucket and bottle you have now, not later.
• Put one bucket in each bathroom for flushing. This is the largest single household use and the easiest to substitute.
• Keep drinking and cooking water separate, in closed containers, so it is never what runs out.
• A pool is not drinking water, but it will flush toilets and wash floors indefinitely.
• A geyser cylinder holds 100 to 200 litres and has a drain cock at the bottom. Switch it off at the electrical isolator first.

Then order water

Once the situation is stable, order. Calling is faster than messaging when the tank is already empty, and a supplier operating 24 hours can be reached whatever time it is.

Have four things ready when you call: your address including the suburb, the volume you need or your tank capacity, where the water should be discharged, and a phone number that will be answered when the driver is close.

Order the volume your storage can actually hold. If you have a 5,000 litre tank that is empty, filling it in one delivery costs less than two smaller loads and means you are not doing this again next week.

Make the delivery count

A delivery is a good moment to fix the thing that made the situation urgent in the first place. If your storage emptied in two days, the storage is undersized for the property, and the same call is coming again.

While the tank is empty is also the easiest time it will ever be to clean it. And if you suspect a leak, this is the moment to find it — before you pay to fill a tank that will drain into the ground.

Related pages

• 24/7 emergency water delivery
• Residential water delivery
• Order bulk water